Re: Bay drivers blissfully unaware of our toll bridge milestone (The Weekend Sun, July 22).

Council sparring partner P Harlen's ongoing nonsense about tolls belies the fact that had he and his ilk had their way, the city would now be paralysed.

As one of those elected members, who took the visionary and courageous step to build the first harbour bridge and Route P (Takitimu Drive), there is no doubt the Tauranga-Mount Maunganui metropolis that P Harlen enjoys living in would have ground to a halt many years ago.

Then a council I was not part of buckled and removed the toll. Legal opinion at that time - at huge cost - stated that a legal challenge to the tolls might or might not succeed.

The lost revenue would have allowed Tauranga City Council to build many much-needed roads around the city.

Those of the so-called Toll Action Group - including current city councillor Rick Curach - helped set the city's traffic woes into the situation we have today.

But for Winston Peters cajoling then Prime Minister Helen Clark into paying for the second harbour bridge, TCC may have been bankrupted.

But those links were essential in the face of unprecedented growth. And P Harlen – bridges have to have approach roads, link roads and overbridges otherwise the bridge just becomes another jam point. And Government wasn't going to pay for any of it in time.

Bill Faulkner, Otumoetai.